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Fort Holly
Fort Holly is a scientific enclave based in Lubbock, Texas. It survives thanks to the Greenway Hydropnics supported research of agricultural scientists at Texas Tech University prior to the Great War. It is West Texas' primary source of non-animal foodstuffs. It is also the place where the generally peaceable Rocker Movement began. History Pre-War The city was founded in 1890 from the combination of two smaller settlements and named for Thomas Saltus Lubbock, a Texas Ranger and Confederate soldier. It was mostly known as a cotton town until the establishment of the Texas Technological College in 1923. The city's other great claim to fame was being the home of early rock-and-roll legend Buddy Holly. Texas Tech grew in the late 60s with the addition of a medical school and became known throughout the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century as being a robust research university. In the mid-2050s it received a large grant from Greenway Hydroponics to research various avenues of terraforming. Though the project was ostensibly intended to help reverse desertification and the colonization of other worlds, memos between Greenway Hydroponics and Texas Tech project leads confirmed that it was intended to repair the earth after "inevitable atomic warfare." Just prior to the Great War, the program had completed a prototype and was in the midst of a ten year trial involving the preparation of several plots of land in the county and the creation of several strains of genetically modified crops. The War Lubbock was a sizable population center with strategic value and was struck with several warheads. Two hit Reese Air Force Base six miles west of the city, a third hit the airport in the northeast, another struck the southeast end of town between I-27 and state highway 289. A last one was intended to hit Texas Tech, a convenient target in the center of town, but interference caused it to hit the southwest edge of the city instead. A number of people survived in typical home or civil defense shelters (many more died in the same), but most within the university survived in the various experimental shelters. Post-War The twenty or so years of work put in at the University paid off. Their prototype process treated the test areas in such a fashion that they were able to process various contaminants and wavelengths of radiation without becoming infertile, an effect so potent it could even draw harmful elements out of contaminated water. Unfortunately the process had to be initiated on uncontaminated ground to begin with, so it was impossible to expand the perpetually fertile areas. The survivor families that tended to the farms grew highly attached to their plots of land, the only arable land for hundreds if not thousands of miles. Predictably, they took great measures to protect themselves and their land from outsiders and each other. The staid traditions and intense politicking of the farmers led to a number of young people leaving their families. Because a number of them were unqualified to become scientists, they stayed at the university as custodians and technicians. One day, one of these technicians took to playing with old broadcasting equipment in the campus' disused radio station. He recruited his friends to refurbish the station and get everything in working order. They initially used it as a glorified public address system for the town, until they found the media section of the ruined library. They uncovered a number of damaged holotapes that they were able to partially restore. They found a wealth of music software that was compatible with the broadcasting equipment along with an extensive library of rock & roll music. Prior to the discovery, the town's music scene consisted of the occasional plucking of a guitar, the antique Rock came as a revelation. The radio clique became intensely fascinated with Rock & Roll and studied its history as best as they could, delving into its antecedent forms such as Jazz and Country. They formed the Rocker Movement, dedicated to the protection and restoration of Old World music and the cultivation of new music. By their reckoning after meeting its needs for shelter, sustenance, and dealing with injury and illness, music was the single greatest human invention. Unlike the written word which had a language barrier, a good tune transcended all cultures. If it was catchy enough to tap your foot to, it could form a foundation for further understanding and dialogue between human beings. Their figurehead took to calling himself the Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah for alliterative appeal and sardonically incorporated religious trappings into the Rocker's lexicon and messages. It was this first Ayatollah who elevated Buddy Holly to sainthood, strictly because of his Lubbock origins. The Rockers also began calling the Lubbock ruins Fort Holly, a name which stuck because the Scientists didn't care and the Farmers didn't deal with outsiders enough to convince them that it wasn't the town's name. Culture Fort Holly has three primary groups: The Farmers, the Scientists, and the Rockers. The Farmers outlook and nature has been shaped by the limited farmland available: they've organized themselves into highly organized, conservative dynasties with byzantine rules regarding land ownership, marriage, and inheritance intended to prevent anyone monopolizing the arable land. They're protective of the Scientists but keep them separate from their hierarchies as part of their efforts to maintain the balance of power within their own community and insure the advances the Scientists make in agricultural science benefit them all. Though individual farmers may enjoy the music the Rockers keep alive, as a whole they have no real use for them and consider them to be layabouts and slackers. The Scientists are the inheritors the body of knowledge assembled by the Texas Tech researchers. Drawing recruits from the best and brightest in the community, they strive to advance their knowledge of biology and agronomy. They focus heavily on practical applications that will be of tangible use towards increasing the quality of life for people in the wasteland. Because of the labyrinthine nature of Farmer politics, Scientists forswear their families and take on new names. Economy Lubbock is an agricultural town, providing bell peppers, cabbage, cotton, grain sorghum, onions, peanuts, spinach, and watermelon to the people of west Texas. They import Brahmin products from Midessa and other sundries from anyone who can supply them, the Scientists in particular frequently need unusual items which means prospectors and scavengers are welcome. Though the available farmland is static, owing to the nature of the Pre-War experiments, the Scientists have spent the last 200 years constantly tinkering to improve the yield. Government Lubbock's need for a government is fairly minimal: the Farmers and Scientists are codependent and the Rockers are peaceful by nature. The groups look to their own leaders for guidance and settling most disputes, but they all defer to the farmer's elected Sheriff, Caleb Worthy, on matters of justice. Outsiders who abuse the people of Fort Holly can expect to dealt with one way or another by a posse assembled by the Sheriff. In addition to the typical town laws regarding theft, murder, and the like, Fort Holly considers trespassing to be extremely serious business. The Scientists have the greatest freedom of movement in Fort Holly, the various farmer dynasties keep each other and outsiders off their land with zeal but allow any Scientist free passage and even accommodations to facilitate their agricultural research. Layout The residents of Fort Holly occupy a surprisingly small area of the Lubbock ruins. They reside within the Texas Tech campus in the and the blocks between it and the Buddy Holly center, primarily along 19th street with other people residing between 19th street and 4th street to the north. This forms a rectangular area of habitation in north-central Lubbock with some of the old parklands outside the space having been converted into farmland. Travelers from the north or south usually follow I-27 to get to Lubbock, getting off the ancient highway near the Buddy Holly Center, from there it's a straight westward walk on 19th street to get to the southern end of the Texas Tech campus. Category:Places Category:Communities Category:Texas